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I recently led a workshop for a company’s sales team on how they could succeed during periods of recession and rising interest rates. Much of the workshop was discussion-based, and the topics of conversation were fascinating.

From the outset, reps and manufacturers that participated in the chat were quick to emphasize that for the relationship between rep and principal to be effective, communication ground rules have to be established from day one. One rep stated it best when he said, “I make every attempt during the interview process with a prospective principal to establish what our communication requirements are going to be. It’s been written about so many times in the pages of Agency Sales magazine that the biggest mistake a manufacturer can make is to sign an agreement with a rep and automatically assume the sales are going to follow. If that’s how you begin a relationship, it’s predictable that someone is going to drop the ball. That’s why communications are so important.

“Every rep likes an active sales manager who understands the process of working with reps. Having said that, we let them know from the very beginning that we’re not going to be providing reports about everything that we do. What we will do, however, is to work very closely with the manufacturer and let him know anything and everything that’s important that is going on in the territory.”

Pioneering Lines

Having said that, the rep continued that the situation is probably going to be a bit different when it comes to pioneering lines, “but with lines that have existing business in the territory, the principal should have every expectation that we’re going to regularly communicate with them. There’s no reason not to.”

The word “expectation” is critical in this discussion and the majority of reps indicated that expectations are generally spelled out from the very beginning of the relationship between rep and principal. “If there’s any question about how often or how much information you should be passing along to your principal, look at your original agreement,” advised one rep. “Your communication requirements are going to vary from principal to principal, but there’s a lot that’s contained in your original agreement with the manufacturer. In addition, those communication requirements are usually a precursor to how your relationship is going to go with the manufacturer.”

At the outset of the chat conversation, the question was asked, “Is there any reason why a rep would be reluctant to communicate with his principal?” As a group all the participants indicated they couldn’t think of a reason. Íf anything would be considered a bad practice, that is it. Communication is of upmost importance to the relationship.”

One rep offered, “It’s important that you iron out the question of communication during the interview process with the manufacturer. It’s then that you can gauge how your relationship is going to develop. Naturally we’re going to want to provide reports on matters of importance, but if the manufacturer wants details of all of your activities, that shows that he really doesn’t know what it takes to work effectively with reps.”

How to Communicate

Then there’s the question of determining the best means of communication. Given the development of technology, there’s many more means of communication than just the traditional face-to-face meeting with a principal to let him know what’s going on. “It’s important to determine with your principal what he prefers. Is it phone, email, text? Or, does the manufacturer prefer the casual check or something more formal when something of importance is in the works?

Staying on the subject of what constitutes the most effective means of communication, the subject was raised about those manufacturers who require or otherwise put pressure on their reps to input data to the manufacturers’ CRM programs. There were several approaches when that situation arises:

• “In response to that we’ll ask the manufacturer what the benefit is. If there’s no benefit to us or them, we’ll push back.”
• “We have our own CRM program. We’ll let the manufacturer know that everything he needs is contained there. If he needs additional information, we’ll be glad to provide it.”
• “One of our principals implemented a CRM program and asked us to contribute to it. We fought long and hard not to get involved. We’ve made it a habit to send in our own reports in an effort to preempt their requests.”
• “We had one principal who was large enough to throw their weight around so that we reluctantly complied. We find it to be tedious and a lot of work and really not very beneficial. Once again, this all takes time way from our principals. We should be in front of them selling all the time — not writing reports.”

Wasting Time

Since any and all communications with principals are going to necessitate the rep taking time away from selling in front of the customer, one participant in the chat advocated for completing a phone call or email/text communication between sales calls. According to the rep, “I’ve found that filling out sales reports is generally a waste of time since I’m not convinced anyone reads them. What I’ve made it a habit to do is once I complete a sales call, if something of importance occurred during a sales call, once I’m in the car, I call the principal between sales calls and let him know what transpired.”

Another rep noted that for him, “Making that call to the principal between sales calls works great. Just this morning I was able to complete two calls that way. The principal couldn’t have been happier and thanked me profusely for picking up the phone and staying in touch. All he asked of me following the call was to send a one-sentence confirmation of our conversation and ‘that constitutes keeping me updated.’”

Can a principal be too aggressive in his requests for information or ask for too much information? One rep responded that “I’ve run into that situation in the past and it resulted in a fairly quick end to our relationship.”

It was generally agreed that manufacturers that ask for too much information are in the habit of treating the reps as employees as opposed to the independent entrepreneurs that they are. When that happens, reps are quick to push back.

A final point made by reps during the chat was that one important preventative measure they can employ to forestall any onerous requests that they regularly report back to their principals was to backsell. According to one rep, “In general, people who haven’t done sales and aren’t familiar with working with reps don’t know how much time, effort and investment it takes to get a new customer. That’s why we’re constantly letting our principals know all that we do for them on a regular basis. Let’s call it my ‘secret sauce’ for sales success. Once I make the effort to let them know what it takes to get the job done, I’ve found they let up on their requests for regular sales reports.”

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